Leviticus 13:30

13:30 the priest is to examine the infection, ¹  and if ²  it appears to be deeper than the skin ³  and the hair in it is reddish yellow and thin, then the priest is to pronounce the person unclean. ⁴  It is scall, ⁵  a disease of the head or the beard. ⁶ 

Matthew 23:5

23:5 They ⁷  do all their deeds to be seen by people, for they make their phylacteries ⁸  wide and their tassels ⁹  long.

Luke 18:9-12

The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

18:9 Jesus ¹⁰  also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down ¹¹  on everyone else. 18:10 “Two men went up ¹²  to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee ¹³  and the other a tax collector. ¹⁴  18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ¹⁵  ‘God, I thank ¹⁶  you that I am not like other people: ¹⁷  extortionists, ¹⁸  unrighteous people, ¹⁹  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ²⁰  18:12 I fast twice ²¹  a week; I give a tenth ²²  of everything I get.’

Romans 2:23

2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law!

[13:30]  ¹ tn Heb “and the priest shall see the infection.”

[13:30]  ² tn Heb “and behold.”

[13:30]  ³ tn Heb “its appearance is deep ‘from’ (comparative מִן, min, “deeper than”) the skin.”

[13:30]  ⁴ tn This is the declarative Piel of the verb טָמֵא (tame’; cf. the note on v. 3 above).

[13:30]  ⁵ tn The exact identification of this disease is unknown. Cf. KJV “dry scall”; NASB “a scale”; NIV, NCV, NRSV “an itch”; NLT “a contagious skin disease.” For a discussion of “scall” disease in the hair, which is a crusty scabby disease of the skin under the hair that also affects the hair itself, see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 192-93, and J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:793-94. The Hebrew word rendered “scall” (נֶתֶק, neteq) is related to a verb meaning “to tear; to tear out; to tear apart.” It may derive from the scratching and/or the tearing out of the hair or the scales of the skin in response to the itching sensation caused by the disease.

[13:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “It is scall. It is the disease of the head or the beard.”

[23:5]  ⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[23:5]  ⁸ sn Phylacteries were small leather cases containing OT scripture verses, worn on the arm and forehead by Jews, especially when praying. The custom was derived from such OT passages as Exod 13:9; 16; Deut 6:8; 11:18.

[23:5]  ⁹ tn The term κράσπεδον (kraspedon) in some contexts could refer to the outer fringe of the garment (possibly in Mark 6:56). This edge could have been plain or decorated. L&N 6.180 states, “In Mt 23:5 κράσπεδον denotes the tassels worn at the four corners of the outer garment (see 6.194).”

[18:9]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “He”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:9]  ¹¹ tn Grk “and despised.” This is a second parable with an explanatory introduction.

[18:10]  ¹² sn The temple is on a hill in Jerusalem, so one would go up to enter its precincts.

[18:10]  ¹³ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[18:10]  ¹⁴ sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

[18:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

[18:11]  ¹⁶ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ¹⁷ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

[18:11]  ¹⁸ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ¹⁹ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ²⁰ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[18:12]  ²¹ sn The law only required fasting on the Day of Atonement. Such voluntary fasting as this practiced twice a week by the Pharisee normally took place on Monday and Thursday.

[18:12]  ²² tn Or “I tithe.”